Recipes, reviews and recreation with the Madhouse Family - one parent, three kids, two dogs, all bilingual !

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Knorr Gourmet Packet Sauces review : Classic Chicken Casserole

Knorr have recently created a range of Gourmet packet sauces, designed to help busy mums and over-stretched novice cooks quickly throw together Michelin restaurant-inspired recipes with just a few fresh ingredients and the contents of the pack. They sent me through the range to try out in the Madhouse kitchen.

Today, we tried the Classic Chicken Casserole with Red Wine and a Dash of Balsamic.

I hastily assembled the ingredients - some chicken breast, bacon, mushrooms, onion and wine. It was supposed to be red onion and red wine but, using what I had in the cupboards, it ended up being a normal onion and white wine.

I cut the top off the sachet to remove the cooking bag. It seemed much bigger than the other brands of season-and-bake bags that I've tried before which made it easier to fill and better for a bigger family.

I chopped up the ingredients and tossed them in the bag with the seasoning from the bottom half of the pack. This is the first time I've added liquid (a mixture of wine and water) to a bake-in-the-bag so I was intrigued to see how it would work.

The instructions on the back of the pack said it would need 30 minutes cooking time but I left mine in the oven for almost an hour, especially as I had slightly increased the quantity of chicken (to make it stretch to five servings instead of the suggested four). I could see that the herbs and spices had blended nicely with the wine/water and covered all the chicken evenly.

I had a slight moment of doubt when I tipped out the contents of the bag because it had all welded into one rather unappetising lump.

Once I broke it apart with a fork (which was very easy), it actually looked really nice and I could smell the aroma of herbs coming through (rosemary and thyme, I think, although I'm not 100% certain). The only slight issue was that the onion was still a bit hard, especially if it had been encased in the chicken, so I would recommend chopping it into smaller pieces than I did.

Taste wise, it is very nice and got a unanimous thumbs up. The sauce is slightly runny but tastes delicious and the addition of liquid made the chicken really juicy. It's a great throw-it-in-the-oven-and-let-it-get-on-with-it midweek lunch or dinner when you need to multitask so I'll definitely be looking out for this in the shops.